This question should be used to assess the skills of a junior level Visual Basic programmer. A candidate with one year of experience should be able to answer the following question correctly. This is a common problem in visual basic applications.

You support an application developed by another programmer for an aircraft parts company. When the form is displayed the cursor is on the text2 field (see the following graphic). The client would like the cursor to be on the text1 TextBox. What is the easiest way to accomplish this?

Answer: The simplest way is to set the TabIndex property of text1 to 0. This will force the cursor to the text1 TextBox when the form is opened. This is the preferred acceptable method for accomplishing this task.

Another method that is technically correct but not as simple is to include the line: txtText1.SetFocus in the form_load event of the form. Although not preferred, this is also an acceptable answer.

A candidate may suggest to put the txtText1.SetFocus in the form_activate event. This will cause the cursor to jump to the txtText1 TextBox whenever the forms get focused.

Other answers, like adding a txtText1.SetFocus to other events, like the text2_gotfocus event are wrong and show a lack of understanding of Visual Basic's intrinsic events.

Additionally, the candidate should mention that the TabOrder should be set for all the "tabbable" controls or the user will go the wrong place after leaving the first text box.

About the author

Mark Horninger, A+, MCSE+I, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, MCSA is President and founder of Haverford Consultants Inc. (http://www.haverford-consultants.com), located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. He develops custom applications and system engineering solutions, specializing primarily in Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft BackOffice products. He has over 15 years of computer consulting experience and has passed 31 Microsoft Certification Exams. During his career Mark has worked on many extensive and diverse projects including database development, client server and web-based application development, training, embedded systems development and Windows NT and 2000 project rollout planning and implementations. Mark is a contributing author to the books: MCSE Windows 2000 Professional Study Guide, Designing SQL Server 2000 Databases for .NET Enterprise Servers, VB .NET Developers Guide and Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows XP Professional.

Mark lives with his wife Debbie and three children in Havertown, Pa. and can be reached at mark@haverford-consultants.com or markh@op.net.